Practical method tackles pelvic organ prolapses
Pig-O-Meter addresses sow welfare, health problems
Elevated sow mortality rates, particularly among first and second-litter sows around the time of parturition, continue to challenge the U.S. pork industry. Current mortality rates can reach up to 17% in sows, with pelvic organ prolapse accounting for 12%.
When 23-year-old Savannah Thomson embarked on a mission to discover preventative measures for sow organ prolapse, she quickly realized that additional tools were essential.
Thomson explains that veterinarians often use quantitative pelvic measurements to predict prolapse and calving ease. However, the swine industry lacks morphometric (sow dimension) factors that might contribute to dystocia, prolapse or sow livability.
During the Allen D. Leman Swine Conference, Thomson was awarded the Morrison Swine Innovator Prize for her innovation — creating a measuring tool that provides ground truth dimensions of swine. The second-year veterinary student in the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine spent the last summer working as a fellowship student in the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine's Food Systems Fellowship program. While there, she worked on a project aimed at finding correlations of morphometric features that could predispose a sow to pelvic organ prolapses.
For the study, she collected morphometric data from 700 commercial sows seven days before farrowing, which was then correlated with key benchmarking information such as stockperson intervention, piglet survival, return to estrus and sow removal or mortality.
Thomson reports that the idea for the Pig-O-Meter came from a doctor's appointment where her height was recorded with a stadiometer. She said, “After seeing how unrealistic and unsafe it would be to use a stadiometer in a group sow housing unit, I decided the best course of action was to 3D print it.”
With a background in STEM and access to a donated 3D printer, Thomson first printed the “pedal,” which slides up and down a measuring stick and rests steadily on the sow’s hips. Next, she printed the stabilizing unit of the Pig-O-Meter, the “foot,” which allows the measuring stick to stay perpendicular at a 90-degree angle on the floor.
With the study complete, Thomson is still awaiting data analysis results. She is hopeful that this will be a starting point for the development of a breeding selection protocol to help reduce pelvic organ prolapses.
The Pig-O-Meter is currently undergoing the process to become intellectual property of Michigan State University.
The Morrison Swine Innovator Prize honors the legacy of Dr. Bob Morrison by inspiring DVM students to pursue work that matters for the swine industry and in doing so, to follow his mantra of “Learn. Teach. Have fun.”